How To - Direct Post
From The Socknet
Services and friends' providers can generate a message for the user to post under his own name on his own provider.
This is valuable, because, if the user agrees to post the message as himself, his friends will be more likely to accept and read them. The alternative is that the creator (generally a service) may hold onto the message, including the user's name somewhere, which the user may then pass on to friends and the friends may then view or ignore.
This is also the mechanism used to post a message "on someone's profile". See #Wall Posts.
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The Function
Direct posting is achieved via post_message.
Wall Posts
The concept of wall posts translates to the Socknet easily.
UserA visits UserB's profile page, at http://provider.com/userb.
UserA is presented with a textarea to write a message, perhaps with enhanced features.
UserA writes something and clicks "Post".
ProviderB sends the request to UserA's post_message function.
POST post_message
{ from: ... userb ...,
recipient: ... userb ...,
message: "...",
return: "http://providerb.com/userb/"
}
->
{ redirect: "http://providera.com/usera/verify/285883"
}
UserB's provider no longer cares about the message. It will receive it back if UserA approves.
This is the most intuitive mechanism for posting messages to a user's own newsfeed while they view a friend's profile. It could also be done from the user's own profile or any mechanism the Socknet provider provides.
Considerations
When clients are introduced to the system, the user must be able to give them permanent permission to post without verification.
The assumption which must be proven by the redirect is that the user is using a separate service to post to his own system, either because that service offers enhanced features or because it "makes more sense" to the user (ie, it makes more sense to most users to go to another user's profile and post a message than to send a message from his own profile).
